need help with SC1 toUcam and "desire" - LX mode doesnt work, why ?

[markuslebt]

hello folks....

this is my first post on the new forum, i signed up just 10 minutes ago.
am in germany, karlsruhe, but always been interested in oceania.
am hobby astronomer since january 2010.

needed some help with SC1-modded toUcam and "desire" the easy program from steve chambers. the webcam works super with half a dozen programs, but i cant see to get LX mode activated ? what am i doing wrong..
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heres what i do...

i build up my setup, (webcam, scope,focal extension ring if needed etc.)
start the software "desire".set the number of images to "1" and the exposure time down to like 0.02 or 0.002
point the webcam at object (for practice a tree in the vicinity during daytime)
now i play with the focuser until i have sharp image. thats it i can take simple pictures of the tree and the leaves moving around.

but soon as i plug the control cable into the 2nd USB port of my white macbook (which runs win7), and activate the "LX" (long exposure) switch on the cam. whenever i take a picture i only get grey grizzly snow. why is that ?

i hope i can upload some pictures to clarify the situation...

i wont give up until i see some spiral arms on my tiny CCD !!

cheerio from Mark... ;)

[markuslebt]

in the GIF image u can see my little setup for the LX test. a tiny newton scope 700/76. then my SC1 modded toUcam 840K.

[markuslebt]

in the other images u can see what happens. I start up the "desire" software.(picture1). i set down exposure time, aim my telescope at a tree, play with the focusser until image is sharp and take pictures.(picture2)
but now whenever i switch on LX mode on camera, no matter the exposure time, i only get grey grizzle. (picture3). why is that ? in the windows device manager, my webcam is clearyl connected, and also the control cable is clearly connected as u can see (picture4)

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG ?

[Astroman]

7 seconds is a long time for an exposure, have you tried with only 1 sec exposure to see if you are not blowing out the image? Also is the camera serial or parallel port controlled? It's possible that desire is not set up correctly. I couldn't see an option for the comport on desire. Others may have better knowledge than me though. Good luck with it.

I use a program called "sharpcap" http://www.sharpcap.co.uk/ for image capture allows long exposure webcams serial or parallel controlled.

[SkyViking]

Hi Mark, it sounds like your LX mode is USB controlled? I have a modified ToUCam but the LX mode is controlled via parallel port. I'm not familiar with Desire, I use K3CCDTools to capture and control the LX mode. I have experienced some interference when other signals were going through the port at the same time ie. I once enabled my focuser to be remotly controlled through the parallel port too but I would get just grey noise if I operated the focuser while the camera was exposing in LX mode. Maybe something similar is happening for you?

Cheers,
Rolf

[markuslebt]

hello andrew and Rolf thanks for your kind answers...

i decided i´d lay the LX mode on ice for a while until i have mastered all aspects of other things that a webcam can do, moon, planets, sunspots.
since i hve a dobson and my EQ platform is not very accurate, LX doesnt make sense rite now. first build the foundation then the roof. otherwise the house looks weird ;)

thanks andrew for mentioning sharpcap. right now i work with IRIS(french program), then "firecapture", and a couple others.

for stacking i found "avistack" be much easier for beginners than registax.
i already successfully stacked some bright stars (tarazed+altair), fainter stars (mag5) are much harder, i first gotta learn more about the software. have not much experience with imaging so far but stoked to learn more !
with time there will also come better equipment.

PS: i use a serial port arrangement, then a DIGITUS serial-to-USB adapter. a brandnew one which can handle much dataload.

[markuslebt]

sharpcap seems a fine little toy. it seems to recognize my camera when in LX mode. i´m gonna give it some further tries soon.

here my first attempts at sunspots. there were today 4 active regions. when i stacked like 100 frames with avistack the result was very lacking, but after applying a simple histogram procedure (darkening a bit) with fitswork it looked a bit better.

it all starts with the proper camera settings upon recording, i think when you hve those down, the rest will be easy.

[Astroman]

Hope it goes well for you in LX mode.